Pastor Annette's Blog
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"OF ALL THE THINGS GOD HAS SHOWN ME, I CAN SPEAK BUT A LITTLE WORD NOT MORE THAN A HONEYBEE CAN CARRY AWAY ON ITS FOOT FROM AN OVERFLOWING JAR."
~ MECHTHILD OF MAGDEBURG, 13TH CENTURY MYSTIC |
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September 19, 2023
Beloved: “Pweeze, Netnet! Pweeze!” begs the most adorable two-year-old grandgirl in the world, having no concept of why the neighborhood pool could possibly be closed, especially now when she just got up the courage to jump in by herself. I’ve mostly distracted her with the Radio Flyer toddler tricycle I found on Facebook Marketplace this weekend. The two brothers who owned it first showed me all its features, like pint-sized used car salesmen. It has a bell, two drink holders and a trunk for her treasures, pinecones, acorns and such. I don’t want to miss a moment of her and yet the day calls us both to our respective duties: her to Tuesday morning nursery school and me to this weekly email. She has people to see, and so do I. She has things to learn, and so do I. We live neither unto ourselves nor exclusively to each other, as much as we would enjoy triking around the neighborhood and watching Bluey all day long. As would everyone who loves her, a list of people longer than your arm. But to the one they are also called to serve others in this world; some feed, some teach, some doctor and nurse — a list of duties longer than your other arm. None of us lives unto ourselves, not even unto the others we love most. We also live unto our communities, for our own livelihood and for their well-being. People we like and people we don’t. People we trust and people we don’t. People we know and people we will never meet. As people of faith, we have no identity apart from the larger community in which we live and which God has called us to love.* The weather outside is practically perfect in every way. I hope you can get outside and speak kindly to a neighbor, maybe be a blessing to a stranger. ~ peace & prayers, pastor annette * “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” ~ Mark 12:30-31
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I cut teeth on a theology that preached the Devil as a master of disguise, who will reel you in with power . . .roaming to and fro, seeking whom he may devour, a theology with a devil stronger than me who is out to get me and it is up to me to resist all his temptations and be good enough for Jesus to save me. That was a lot of pressure for the people-pleasing 13-year-old bookworm I was then. To say the least. More accurately, it was a form of spiritual abuse, twisting the story of God’s unconditional love for us in such a way that it terrorizes children. Somehow the devil’s backbone is strengthened in the telling of the Jesus story, so that little kids run to Jesus out of fear instead of joy, feeling chased by wolves instead of welcomed by a loving parent. Once I read and thought and prayed through the theology for myself, I understood the story so very, very differently. In the Christ event, the spine of evil was snapped, broken irreparably. Irreparable as it may be, it hasn’t breathed its last, and humans do as humans will when they are fearful, hurt and disconnected – they will tap into that evil. And God help us all when the most fearful ones are also powerful. This sort of evil often wears a suit and tie. It can be legal, even become policy. A master of disguise . . . as the song goes. Still, it has healed my heart and soothes it now to recognize that any devil chasing me is too far broken and paralyzed to harm me. At most, they may frighten or discourage, but only so long as I give them such access to my heart. Instead, I choose to stay where I am wanted, where I belong, in the watchful care of the one who calls us his sheep, and promises to keep us close, always and forever. ~ peace & prayers, pastor annette My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, in regard to what he has given me, is greater than all, and no one can snatch them out of the Father’s hand.
~ John 10:27-29 September 5, 2023 Beloved: Four years ago today I was about to leave for India. Here’s something I wrote when I returned. At the ashram in India, I attended teaching sessions of a guru named Sadhvi Bhagawati Saraswatiji, or Sadhvi. Not to weird you out too much, but this Baptist preacher enjoyed her immensely. She’s really smart, deeply wise, funny, kind, and practical in ways I appreciate. “It is not selfish to desire a peaceful home,” and “if someone consistently spills tea on your best sofa and never apologizes or helps clean it up, maybe they aren’t the person you want to keep having over for tea." And my favorite: “All the mystical practices of all the religions in the world send us inward to the place of spiritual abundance.” She is prayed up, as the Baptists who raised me would have said, though maybe not about a Hindu leader. But I have no doubt at all. As my heart, mind, body, and soul continue to settle down from my trip to India, I am all the more grateful for the ways I shall never be the same — in a dozen tiny ways for sure, but most of all in ways having to do with prayer. With worship. And with language for the One who made and loves us all. In every people group in every time and place, language has kindled a cacophony of words and names for God while unknowingly agreeing on the message of the Divine’s unyielding love.  Friends have asked, how was India? Mostly I answer, hot. To one person however I did say, if I traveled to the moon I don’t think I would have felt more like a foreigner. Which is altogether true save one thing: those sunset Hindu worship services alongside the Ganges River — Mother Ganges they call it, because all of India is fed by her waters. Weird as it is to say so, those sunset services felt like Baptist church camp to me — folks getting closer to God by getting closer to nature. The words were different, but the connection among people singing together was exactly the same; the night air was exactly the same; the sound of lapping water was exactly the same. So was the shine of the stars and the smell of the fire and the deep peace of praying with other praying people.
All those people together at the ashram for Navratri are now back home at their everyday routines, where spiritual practice is always more tricky than when at camp, on retreat, or on pilgrimage. Duty so easily crowds out the things we do for pleasure, prayer especially. However you are able, try to make the time, and then keep in mind that a world of folks are praying too. ~ peace & prayers, pastor annette |
I write a Tuesday morning devotional to members and friends of UBC. It is also posted here.
Enjoy! Pastor Annette Copyright
Everything on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons license, which gives you permission to copy freely, provided that you attribute the work to me, that you use the work for non-commercial purposes, and that you do not produce derivative works. Archives
March 2025
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